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Christmas markets are not just tradition across Europe, they are big businesses that give cities a huge economic boost every December. For Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, it is an effective way of attracting tourists outside of the country’s main summer season.

The words “tourism” and “Croatia” are likely to conjure visons of sparkling Adriatic vistas during the hottest months of the year.

Tourism accounts for more than a fifth of the economy of this Balkan country, and it is keen to encourage more visitors to arrive outside of the height of summer. Yuletide frolics are a key part of that strategy.

“We’re making a transformation,” says Croatia’s Tourism Minister, Tonci Glavina.

“We are developing as a year-round tourism destination – we are not a summer destination anymore. Croatia has really made a significant development. At some point way back it was just sun and sea, but now Croatia offers many tourism products all across the country.”

Zagreb Advent, as the capital’s Christmas markets and events are collectively known, is the poster child for this approach, with billboards in neighbouring countries urging people to attend. In fact, this year the campaign has spread as far as London’s tube stations and Milan’s buses.

There are even special trains to bring visitors from Slovenia and Hungary. All of it is part of Zagreb’s push, in a very crowded field, to become one of Europe’s most popular Christmas markets.

While some cities might limit their offering to a single location, Zagreb Advent is a multi-venue spectacular that takes over large chunks of the centre.

“The entire city has become a festive ground for celebrating Christmas throughout the whole of December,” says Slavica Olujic Klapcic, who manages one of the Christmas market areas.

“What’s really special around here is that each of the locations has its own theme, and it’s a little bit different in decoration, and in the content that it offers. So for a visitor, I think it’s a good deal, because by taking a walk through Zagreb, you can see many different spots.”

Like other Christmas markets across Europe there are no shortages of the usual seasonal staples, such as sausages and mulled wine. But there are also multiple music stages, craft stalls, vendors offering traditional Croatian food, art installations, and an enormous ice rink.

“It brings life to Zagreb,” reckons Zrinka Farina, who is involved with putting on Christmas market events outside the city’s historic Hotel Esplanade, as well as a food and music market at nearby Strossmayer Square called Fuliranje – which roughly translates as “fooling around”.

But she says that Croatians are deadly serious about trying to offer Europe’s best Christmas market. “We are such a sporty nation, we love to compete – and when we do something, we really want to be the best in the world in it.”

Such has been the effort that the city has put into Zagreb Advent since it was first held in 2014 that it was voted the best Christmas market in Europe for three years in a row, from 2015 to 2017.

The competition is organised by travel website European Best Destinations, and Zagreb’s success has helped to drive visitor numbers to the city every December.

Back in 2014, the city saw 100,198 people stay for at least one night during the last month of the year. By 2024 this had more than doubled to 245,352, which the tourist board says gave the city a €100m ($117m; £88m) economic boost.

However, Zagreb has a long way to go if it wishes to catch up with Europe’s Christmas market heavyweights.

The one held in the German city of Cologne is widely reported to be the most popular. It is expected to attract four million visitors this year, with an economic impact of €229m.

Meanwhile, Austria’s capital Vienna attracts around 2.8 million visitors to its Christmas market, and France’s Strasbourg gets two million people.

Zagreb’s event also has a limited history – it is only in its 11th year. By contrast, Dresden’s Christmas market, widely considered to be the world’s oldest, was first held in 1434. Strasbourg’s began in 1570, Vienna in 1764 and Cologne in 1820.

Despite its infancy, Zagreb Advent is said to be attracting visitors from across Europe. “They come here from Italy, Spain, Bosnia, Slovenia and even the UK,” says Lucija Vrkljan, who is working as a steward at the ice rink.

“It’s a great place to be,” says Dario Kozul, the founder of BioMania, a bistro with a stall offering vegan and gluten-free food at the Hotel Esplanade Christmas market. “We have a cross-marketing situation all the time,” he adds.

“People walk into this event and test our food – they’re really very pleased with it. Then we talk about our restaurant, and within the next couple of days, we see them there.”

Marko Peric, dean of the Faculty of Tourism at Croatia’s University of Rijeka, agrees that Zagreb Advent brings “unusually high” numbers of arrivals and overnight stays in December.

But he cautions that the rest of Croatia’s heavy reliance on the summer season is a weakness that still needs to be addressed. “We need to work and develop our tourist offer in other parts of the year, including the winter,” he says.

“We don’t have snow, but we can offer a lot. We should rely on our gastronomy, which is well known, with many tourists arriving just because of that. And we could use other types of events like carnival in February, or sporting events.”

Tourism Minister Tonci Glavina insists that Croatia is making moves in the right direction. He points out that visitor numbers over July and August were actually slightly down on the same period in 2024.

But the country is still on course for a record-breaking year, thanks to significant growth either side of the summer peak, with around 5% more arrivals in June and September. This, says the minister, is “just perfect”, as is the 10% year-on-year rise over the first week of December.

“We are transforming Croatia to be a sustainable tourism destination, meaning about the same number of guests in peak season, developing the shoulder seasons, and of course developing other parts of the country to be main tourism destinations.”

Zagreb Advent has already shown the benefits. Although that may not be the first thing that springs to a visitor’s mind with all the traditional Croatian treats on offer.

After all, what could be better than a post-skate fritule doughnut, except perhaps a fritule with chocolate sauce.

Late one night last month Iang Za Kim heard explosions in a neighbouring village, then fighter jets flying overhead. She ran out of her home to see smoke rising from a distance.

“We were terrified. We thought the junta’s planes would bomb us too. So we grabbed what we could – some food and clothes and ran into the jungles surrounding our village.”

Iang’s face quivers as she recounts the story of what happened on 26 November in K-Haimual, her village in Myanmar’s western Chin State, and then she breaks down.

She’s among thousands of civilians who’ve fled their homes in recent weeks after the Burmese military launched a fierce campaign of air strikes, and a ground offensive in rebel-held areas across the country, to recapture territory ahead of elections starting on 28 December.

Four other women sitting around her on straw mats also start crying. The trauma of what they’ve gone through to make it to safety is clearly visible.

While the air strikes were the immediate cause for Iang to flee, she also doesn’t want to be forced to participate in the election.

“If we are caught and refuse to vote, they will put us in jail and torture us. We’ve run away so that we don’t have to vote,” she says.

Some from Chin state have described the junta’s latest offensive as the fiercest it has launched in more than three years.

Many of the displaced have sought refuge in other parts of the state. Iang is among a group that crossed the border into India’s Mizoram state. Currently sheltered in a rundown badminton court in Vaphai village, the group’s few belongings they were able to carry are packed in plastic sacks.

Indian villagers have given them food and basic supplies.

Ral Uk Thang has had to flee his home at the age of 80, living in makeshift shelters in jungles for days, before finally making it to safety.

“We’re afraid of our own government. They are extremely cruel. Their military has come into our and other villages in the past, they’ve arrested people, tortured them, and burned down homes,” he says.

It isn’t easy to speak to Burmese civilians freely. Myanmar’s military government does not allow free access in the country for foreign journalists. It took over the country in a coup in February 2021, shortly after the last election, and has since been widely condemned for running a repressive regime that has indiscriminately targeted civilians as it looks to crush the armed uprising against it across Myanmar.

During its latest offensive, the junta last week targeted a hospital in Rakhine State, just south of Chin State. Rebel groups in Rakhine say at least 30 people were killed and more than 70 injured.

The Chin Human Rights Organisation says that since mid-September at least three schools and six churches in Chin State have been targeted by junta airstrikes, killing 12 people including six children.

The BBC has independently verified the bombing of a school in Vanha village on 13 October. Two students –Johan Phun Lian Cung, who was seven, and Zing Cer Mawi, 12 – were killed as they were attending lessons. The bombs ripped through their classrooms injuring more than a dozen other students.

Myanmar’s military government did not respond to the BBC’s questions about the allegations.

This is the second time Bawi Nei Lian and his young family – a wife and two young children – have been displaced. Back in 2021, soon after the coup, their home in Falam town was burnt down in an air strike. They rebuilt their lives in K-Haimual village. Now they’re homeless again.

“I can’t find the words to explain how painful and hard it is and what a difficult decision it was to make to leave. But we had to do it to stay alive,” he says.

“I want the world to know that what the military is claiming – that this election is free and fair – this is absolutely false. When the main political party is not being allowed to contest the election, how can there be genuine democracy?”

The National League for Democracy party, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, which won landslides in the two elections prior to the coup, will not be contesting as most of its senior leaders including Suu Kyi are in jail.

“We don’t want the election. Because the military does not know how to govern our country. They only work for the benefit of their high-ranking leaders. When Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s party was in power, we experienced a bit of democracy. But now all we do is cry and shed tears,” says Ral Uk Thang.

Iang Za Kim believes the election will be rigged. “If we voted for a party not allied with the military, I believe they will steal our votes and claim we voted for them.”

The election will take place in phases, with a result expected around the end of January. Rebel groups have called it a sham.

At the base of the Chin National Front in Myanmar, the most prominent rebel group operating in the state, the group’s Vice Chairman Sui Khar says: “This election is only being held to prolong military dictatorship. It’s not about the people’s choice. And in Chin State, they hardly control much area, so how can they hold an election?”

He points out the areas where the most intense fighting is ongoing on a map and tells us nearly 50 rebel fighters have been injured in just the past month. There have been deaths too, but so far the groups have not released a number.

“There are columns of hundreds of soldiers trying to advance into the northern part of Chin state from four directions,” Sui Khar says. “The soldiers are being supported by air strikes, artillery fire and by drone units.”

Access to the base is extremely rare. Set amid thickly forested mountains, it is the heart of the resistance against the junta in Chin state.

Sui Khar takes us to the hospital at the base. We see a group of injured fighters who were brought in overnight and had to undergo hours of surgery. Some of them have had to undergo amputations.

Many of them were just schoolboys when the coup occurred in 2021. Just about adults now, they’ve let go of their dreams to fight on the frontline against the junta.

Abel, 18, is in too much pain to speak. He was with a group of fighters trying to take back territory the junta captured a week ago. They won the battle, but Abel lost his right leg and has serious injuries to his hands as well.

In a bed next to him is Si Si Maung, 19, who’s also had a leg amputated.

“As the enemy was retreating we ran forward and I stepped on a landmine. We were injured in the explosion. Then we were attacked from the air. The airstrikes make things very difficult for us,” he says. “I’ve lost a leg, but even if I’ve to give up my life I’m happy to make the sacrifice so that future generations have a better life.”

The impact of the ferocity of the latest offensive is visible in room after room at the hospital.

Yet, it’s the support and grit of tens of thousands of youngsters like Si Si Maung, who picked up arms to fight against the junta, that have helped the rebels make rapid advances against a much more powerful rival in the past four-and-a-half years.

Some like 80-year-old Ral Uk Thang hope that after the election, the junta will retreat, and he will be able to go back home.

“But I don’t think I will live to see democracy restored in Myanmar,” he says. “I hope my children and grandchildren can witness it some day.”

Additional reporting by Aamir Peerzada, Sanjay Ganguly and Aakriti Thapar